Kiss It Better
by Marzi
Summary: A hypnotism gone wrong leaves Sarah with the mind of a child.
1. Chapter 1

A/N You know, I've reread this story on a typo-hunt numerous times now, and I just finally caught a Jane Austen whiff (or maybe as it's three in the morning I'm totally hallucinating) in the first sentence. Weird how long it takes for things to creep up on you...

Well, let the muli-chapter escapade of cute/quirkiness begin..

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><p><strong>Chapter One<strong>

Through the course of their adventure, as it was want to happen, The Doctor found Sarah to be under hypnotic suggestion. As he had grown used to such an event, he took it upon himself to pull her throughout the danger at his side, under close watch, until he could reverse what had been done to her once the overwhelming threat had been dealt with.

So of course, it wasn't until after the mastermind behind the attempted destruction of the peaceful village of Talund had died in the fiery blaze of his own doomsday machine, did the Doctor realize that the man may have been a genius mechanic, but he was quite obviously a sub-par hypnotist. That, or all of the previous times Sarah's mind had been clouded and given instruction had finally had their repercussions, though he hoped it wasn't the later.

With a sigh, the Doctor began to root through the pockets of his coat for a sack of jelly babies. The reason he knew the would-be-doom bringer was a bad hypnotist, was because Sarah had told him a rather mean looking man had told her to kill him, and only after he had announced to the villagers that they were safe.

Also, she was fixated at making mud patties in the dirt next to the TARDIS, as she had refused to go inside. Sarah had a large grin on her face as she dug her fingers into the earth, pausing in her fake-baking to scratch at her nose, leaving dirt across her face to match the patches on her clothes.

"Sarah," the Doctor called, the_ teensiest_ bit of frustration leaking through when his hand was unsuccessful in his hunt for sweets. He began the search again with the other, "we need to get in the TARDIS now."

"I'm not done baking yet, we'll get hungry." Her hair was in a mess around her face, and as she leaned forward it began to get dragged through the mud she was playing in.

"There's plenty of food in the TARDIS," the Doctor finally tore his eyes away from her, staring down into his pocket. Where had they got to?

"It's all yucky."

"My TARDIS does not serve yucky food!" He protested.

She blew a raspberry at him.

The Doctor gave a great huff at her response, then decided he wasn't going to play any more games with her. "Young lady, into the TARDIS. Now."

"No!"

He felt something tap his chest, so he looked away from his pocket and down at his waistcoat, where there was now a tiny patch of mud. His eyes slowly tracked across the ground until they landed on where Sarah was. She was sitting up straighter, hands in the mud, preparing to throw more. There was a look of determination on her face that matched a toddler refusing to take a bath. The Doctor was seriously beginning to doubt he would ever make it off the planet when his hand, buried elbow deep in his pocket, finally grabbed onto something.

He grinned.

Sarah narrowed her eyes at his sudden change in demeanor.

The Doctor schooled the grin away then sighed dramatically, "well then, I'm just going to have to leave without you."

"Yea."

"All alone in the vortex.." he turned slowly back towards the TARDIS doors, pulling the long sought after white bag from his pocket, "no one to share jelly babies with." His back was to her, so he couldn't see her expression, but the sudden silence said more than enough. He grinned because he knew she wouldn't be able to see. "I'll get a cavity when I eat these all by myself.. ah, well. I used to have a friend, you know, a best friend, we could have shared, but she doesn't even want to travel with me anymore."

"I want to travel with you."

The soft voice at his elbow startled him, and his grin dropped when he looked in the direction of the voice. Sarah stared up at him, brown eyes wide and sad. The Doctor hadn't even heard her walk up behind him.

"Your best friend is a meanie."

The Doctor decided not to tell her that he had been talking about her, "yes, she was."

"I'll be your best friend."

"You just want my sweets," he accused, pulling the bag close to his chest.

"No! No, I want to travel with you too."

"Really?" His eyes grew wide, and he was finding it increasingly difficult not to start grinning at the incredibly earnest expression on her face.

"Yes!"

"Well then, into the TARDIS and we'll be off."

Bouncing on her toes (apparently she had abandoned the shoes somewhere) Sarah bounded into the TARDIS. Nearly sighing in relief, the Doctor hurried after her, quickly closing the doors behind them. Sarah was at the console, hands gripping the edge and she was leaning over so she could rest her chin on the backs of them. As he started the dematerializeation sequence she stared up at him.

His eyes fixated on the smudge of dirt across her nose. The Doctor decided not to mention it though, doubting that Sarah with the mind of a child would react much better than normal-Sarah if he told her she looked adorable with dirt on her face. "What?"

There was a beat of silence in which she held a look of someone who really shouldn't say something, but they were definitely going to anyway, before asking, "can I have a jelly baby?"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Sorry for the delay, I was moving.. and then FFnet wouldn't let me log in...

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><p><strong>Chapter Two<br>**

Harry Sullivan was having a good day, and was confident that he would leave the UNIT base at a decent hour and be back at his flat in time for a real dinner and a proper night's sleep.

The moment he heard the sound of the TARDIS materializing, he felt a strong desire to stop walking down the hallway and smash his head into the wall for even allowing himself to think positive. Instead of giving into the impulse, he calmly headed for the room in which it sounded like the TARDIS had landed. It was just finishing up into becoming completely solid when he opened the door into the old laboratory.

He stood silently in the room, staring at the blue doors and waiting for the man with the crazed blue eyes and the ridiculously long scarf to come running out, girl reporter at his heels.

The Doctor did come out, but it was less of a run and more of a stomp. It looked like he was pouting. Sarah did not appear.

"Doctor?" Harry asked carefully.

"Shh," the alien muttered, his stomps turning into tiptoes as he looked carefully over his shoulder while advancing towards Harry.

"Shh?" The naval officer repeated in confusion.

"Yes," the Doctor continued to whisper. He stopped moving forward only after her had properly invaded Harry's personal space and had his face less than an inch from his.

"What for?" He began whispering.

"She's taking a nap."

"Who?"

"Sarah."

He blinked in confusion, "what on earth for?"

"She crashed."

"Crashed..crashed! Into what? Is she alright- do I need to-"

"No, no," he waved his arm in Harry's face, causing him to lean back out of the way or let himself get hit. "Sugar crash."

"Sugar?"

"Yes. She ate all my jelly babies.." The pout he had seen on the Time Lord's face when he first exited his ship was back. "She was running around the TARDIS for nearly an hour and wouldn't give me back my screwdriver."

Confused, Harry decided just to keep going with the conversation. "Well then, why are we whispering?"

"What do you mean?"

"If she's in her room-"

"Did I say she was in her room?" He snapped.

"Well, you did say she was taking a nap."

"She stole my coat and is sleeping under the console." The Doctor finally stepped off to the side and out of Harry's space, whose immediate reaction was to let his posture relax.

Then the Doctor's words words caught up to him and he immediately snapped back to attention. "Doctor, is she alright?"

"Of course."

Harry frowned, "are you alright?"

"Alright, of course I'm alright!" It took the Doctor a moment to realize that he had gone from whispering to shouting, and in that moment he hid behind Harry and stared cautiously around him at the still open door of the TARDIS.

"Doctor, what the blazes is going on?" The earth man demanded.

The Time Lord remained silent, staring at the open door. Unease creeping into him, Harry stared too. Eventually there was the shuffle of movement, and with the sound of a yawn Sarah came into view at the door. She blinked sleepily at him, hair a tangled mess and clothes covered in dried dirt. There was a smudge of dirt across her nose that Harry would almost call adorable.

Suddenly, a grin broke out across her face and she cried, "Harry!"

She said his name the same way a small child would call to a much beloved family pet. "Er, hello," he managed to call back.

Sarah bounded across the short distance between them and threw her arms around him. Harry awkwardly returned the embrace. It continued on a fair bit longer than Harry ever expected a hug from Sarah to last. In fact, she kept holding onto him even after he dropped his arms.

"Harry," she whispered into his chest, "there's someone hiding behind you."

"I am not hiding!" The Doctor protested, standing up straight and taking a step away from Harry.

"Were too!" Sarah finally let go of the hug, stepping around the naval officer to confront the Doctor.

"I was stretching," he protested, bending down to grab his shoes. "See?"

"Were not."

Harry's expression when from blank with shock to round-eyed with shock as Sarah and the Doctor's argument progressed until the two of them were reduced to shouting barely understandable syllables at one another.

"Nuh-uh!"

"Was so!"

"Nuh!"

"Zo!"

"Nuh-"

"What is going on?" Harry interrupted.

They immediately stopped and turned their eyes towards him.

"This is getting ridiculous, will someone just tell me what is going on?" He repeated.

Sarah pointed a finger at the Doctor. "He's being mean!"

* * *

><p>"Could you repeat that?" Harry asked, mind still spinning.<p>

"Yes Doctor," the Brigadier was having a hard time hiding his smile. "Please, tell us what happened. Again."

"Again? Wasn't it simple enough the first time? Hmph,"the Doctor crossed his arms before diving into his second round of explaining. "Sarah was captured, and someone turned their hand at hypnotizing her. It seemed instead of making her mind docile and susceptible to suggestion she was just regressed to a childlike state."

"Why do you need to be here in order to set her right? Do you need our help?" Alistair turned serious.

"Hm? Of course not, what use could you possibly be?"

Harry frowned at the comment.

"Then why come here at all?" The UNIT commander persisted.

"Well, you see.. I tried to set her right in the TARDIS, and it's a bit more complicated than I counted on."

"You? Underestimate a situation?"

The Doctor ignored the barb, "and after a brief period elapsed with me unconscious I decided to try again in a place where I wasn't likely to wake up and find Sarah at the controls of a ship capable of transcending to the fourth dimension."

"You blacked out?" Harry blurted, translating the Doctor's slightly less incriminating interpretation. "Are you going to be able to set her right?"

"Of course I am," the alien snapped.

"Very well Doctor," the Brigadier intervened before more accusations could be traded. "You can have a room until you set Miss Smith right. Where is she?"

"Drawing," was the curt response.

Harry elaborated, "Benton found some pencils for her sir, they're in the mess and he's keeping an eye on her."

Alistair sighed, "I would prefer it if my staff weren't waylaid into your little mishap, Doctor. I do need them ready in case of an emergency, and those tend to follow you around."

"Oh nonsense Brigadier," the Doctor protested. "Nothing disastrous will happen while we're here!"

An alarm bell sounded in the distance.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"There, now you're all set to start drawing," John Benton smiled at the person standing next to him.

Sarah Jane Smith stared down at her recently washed hands and wrinkled her nose. She had wiggled away when the Warrant Officer had tried to wash the dirt from her face, so there was a streak of dirt from her nose up across her cheek.

"What if I wanted dirt on my paper?" She grumbled, slowly moving away from the sink.

"You can always put more on later if you really want to," he reasoned, carefully walking behind her so he could guide her back to their table without incident.

"Hmph.." she sat down with a huff and kept her feet just off the ground, so she could swing them freely. Her feet were bare, and he could only guess as to where her shoes had gone.

Benton sat next to her, trying not to let his amusement show. He'd seen the young reporter change quite a bit during her visits to the UNIT base, but this change certainly topped them all. Though no matter how entertaining he saw it now, a tiny part of him couldn't help but be worried. Sarah Jane had been a brilliant young woman just at the start of her career, was the Doctor bringing her here because he was incapable of fixing her? Would her mind slowly mature back to what it had been, or would she be stuck like this forever?

It was a depressing notion he pushed aside.

Sarah was reaching for the pencils he had found for her, and began to almost absentmindedly sketch on the scrap paper he had raided from the supply closet. She bit her lip with concentration as she continued her picture.

"What are you making?" He asked, though he could see the paper just fine.

"Wait," she chastised.

Smiling, he did as she asked, keeping one eye on the door and another on her paper.

After a moment of just the sound of her pencil scratching the paper, he spoke up, "box is spelled with an 'x'."

Sarah blushed, "I know!" And hastily covered the letters 'cks' with a large 'x'.

Benton decided not to tell her that she had spelled 'police' wrong either.

"Stop peeking," she snapped at him, hunching over her picture and glaring at him.

"I'm not," he protested, turning his eyes back to the door.

"Liar," she muttered.

"I do not lie."

"Ev-ryone lies."

It unnerved Benton to hear those words spoken with such an innocent inflection. "Why do you say that?" He asked, looking back at her. Her attention was still on her paper, so she didn't notice his change in focus.

"The Doctor lies all the time," before he could interject she continued, "and that man on the planet we were on lied. He said the Doctor was evil. Everyone who's ever tried to take over the planet lied too."

"Well, I suppose so, but-"

"My aunty lied all the time too. She said she'd be home to see me, and she never was. She said that my parents loved me, but if they really did, they wouldn't have left me when I was a baby."

The offhand comment floored the soldier. He hadn't known Sarah had been orphaned, and he got the distinct impression she would never have told him under normal circumstances. They got along well, but it wasn't as if they were truly friends.

"Sometimes people lie without meaning too, or because they're trying to protect you." He tried to console her, but she didn't seem too upset by her previous statement.

Sarah shrugged her shoulder. Benton frowned, and slowly let his eyes drift back to the door.

"I'm done," she announced suddenly.

"Oh good, what have you drawn?" He looked at the paper, frown slowly disappearing as he took in the awkward rectangle with windows, the words 'poleas boX' scrawled across the top. There was a smaller rectangle on top which he took to be the TARDIS's light.

"The Doctor."

Benton's mouth opened but it took a moment for sound to come out, "it looks like the TARDIS."

Sarah rolled her eyes, "he's inside the TARDIS."

"But wouldn't that make this a picture of the TARDIS then?"

"The Doctor is in the TARDIS, so he's in the picture!"

"Right," he decided to agree with her before they ended up arguing.

"I'm thirsty," Sarah announced, as if it was a perfectly expected turn in conversation.

"Yes well, I'm supposed to be keeping you here.. but how about we sneak off for a drink that isn't from the mess?" Benton felt a strong desire to comfort Sarah after what she had just admitted to him, not to mention her current mindset made him want to treat her just like he did his spoiled niece.

She turned her wide eyes towards him, there was a wariness to them, but she seemed mainly excited.

"Have you ever had army coca? It's best off one of the burner's in the lab. What say you and I go make some?"

"In a real lab?"

"Yes."

Sarah practically jumped off her chair in excitement.

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><p>"Could you repeat that," the Brigadier sighed, sadly mirroring Sullivan's comment from earlier.<p>

Benton shuffled awkwardly. "We uh, knocked over some equipment in the lab sir, and uh, one of the tables caught fire. The alarm was just the fire bell, sir."

"What were you doing with miss Smith outside of the mess, Benton? I was told you were keeping her there until the Doctor came to pick her up," the older man frowned.

"We were making cocoa sir."

"Cocoa? You nearly burned down half the base over a cup of cocoa?" The Brigadier tightened his grip on the swagger stick tucked under his arm, and his mustache looked close to twitching.

"Now now Brigadier, no need to be so harsh on the boy." The Doctor grinned at the pair of them, popping into view from around the corner. His scarf and hat were missing and his sleeves had been rolled up."I told you nothing disastrous would happen, didn't I? See, it was all a misunderstanding. Now, where's Sarah?"

Relieved that someone had interfered before his commanding officer had a stroke, Benton gratefully replied, "doctor Sullivan is looking after her, she got a burn on her hand. Nothing bad at all, but he did want to look at it."

The Doctor's grin vanished the moment it was mentioned Sarah had gotten hurt. "Harry's looking after her? I take it back Brigadier, this is disastrous." He stomped off towards the sick bay.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

"I say, where have you been? I lost sight of you after the alarm went off." Harry asked, seeing the Doctor coming towards him.

Frowning, he spoke quickly, "putting out a fire. Now what have you done to her?"

"What have-? Oh, Sarah. Nothing."

"You just let her sit in here with an untreated burn?" He accused.

"No, of course I treated her. I thought you.. oh, never mind.. There wasn't much to treat really, hardly a blister, I just put some ice on it. She'll be fine."

Pushing past him, the Doctor moved towards the bed that held his errant companion. She had been hunched over, staring at her hand, but when she spotted him she perked up immediately. "Doctor!"

"Hello Sarah," he smiled in return. "How's your hand?"

"It hurts a little," she held it up for him to inspect.

He held the offered hand gently in one of his own and carefully traced around the thin blister on her palm with the fingers from his other hand. She winced when he brushed over the lightly singed skin.

"Hm, well, there is something I can try to make it feel better. It's an old Earth medicine, I'm not sure if it'll work."

"Well you should try," she encouraged him.

"You know Sarah, I think you're quite right." Keeping a hold of her hand, he slowly brought up her palm and gently kissed it. "Feel better?" He asked.

Biting her lip, Sarah just nodded.

"Good," the Doctor grinned, still holing onto her hand. "Now, there's something else I want to try Sarah, I just need you to concentrate," he lifted his free hand to touch it to her temple.

"Doctor, what are you doing?" Harry protested.

"Shh," he shot back in response. "Sarah," the Doctor continued, gentler, "I just want you to concentrate."

"Concen-?" Her eyes fluttered as if she was tired, and as she started to slump the Doctor gently guided her down to lay on the bed.

"What did you do?" Harry asked, more than a little worried about Sarah's sudden unconscious state.

"Just a little psychic suggestion, she's only resting."

"She doesn't need it."

"I do," the Doctor moved alongside the bed until he was standing by her head. "Putting Sarah to rights will be much easier if she isn't awake." Slowly reaching towards her, he brushed a strand of hair away from her face before delicately laying his finger tips to her temples. "This will be a little difficult, so stop interrupting me."

Harry nodded, brow coming together as the Doctor closed his eyes.

Several seconds of tense silence passed during which nothing seemed to happen. Sarah held the expression of someone content in their sleep and the Doctor's blank face didn't alter. As seconds ticked into minutes Harry carefully sat in one of the visitor chairs, wondering if perhaps the Doctor was pulling his leg, but much too worried to bother to try interrupting to see if something important was happening. The continuing quiet began to unnerve Harry though, until he realized what it was.

He had never before seen the Doctor so still, Sarah for that matter was also one to be in constant motion. Tactile, curious, and more than a bit nosy the both of them. Seeing them as they were was like seeing them completely devoid of life. Rather than let the unease get to him, Harry slowly stood and left the room, wondering if there was something to be done for the Brigadier.

The only sound in the room after he left was the ticking of the clock on the wall. 

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><p>"It should have worked, Harry," the Doctor ran a hand through his hair, staring rather dejectedly off into space.<p>

He tried to console the other man, "well perhaps if you just give it some time-"

"Time? Time! There's been plenty of time. It should have worked."

"You know, it takes a lot to upset you like this. Is it really very serious? Will she.. be stuck like this?" The notion was remarkably terrifying.

"I'm doing my best to make sure that she isn't, and of course I'm upset! Sarah is my-"

"Best friend, yes I know." Harry leveled the Doctor with a look that implied several other things in that statement.

Deciding that he didn't need any more accusations levied at him, especially ones that weren't from his own conscious, the Doctor moved towards the door. "I'll go see her once more time tonight.. start again in the morning. Humans! Always wasting time with sleep."

Harry shook his head at the Doctor's rather guilty appearing exit. Sometimes, he didn't want to know. Other days, he rather certainly did. 

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><p>He wondered if he had knocked too softly and was on the verge of pounding his fist onto the door when he caught the sound of a soft voice saying 'come in'. Feeling strangely relieved, the Doctor slowly opened the door and peered inside before stepping across the threshold.<p>

The room the Brigadier was letting Sarah use was rather like a closet with a bed in it. There was even just one bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, chain dangling down just far enough to brush the top of his hair. Still, the Doctor felt it was better than pitching in the TARDIS where was she was bound to run off again.

Sarah sat at the edge of the bed, elbows on knees and hands propping up her chin. She looked towards the Doctor from the corner of her eye. "Am I in trouble?"

"No, what made you think that?"

"John put me in a tiny room than went away. What did I do wrong?"

Well, that was rather incriminating, wasn't it? "You haven't done anything wrong, Sarah." The Doctor spoke softly, settling himself on the bed next to her. "This is just the only place you can sleep."

"I want to go back to the TARDIS."

"We can go back to the TARDIS tomorrow."

"Will I be back tomorrow?"

He frowned, "what do you mean?"

"All day, people talk like I'm not here." Dropping her arms into her lap, Sarah opted to lean against the Doctor for support. "Will I be back tomorrow? I want people to talk to me."

Putting his arm around her to pull her closer, the Doctor mumbled, "I rather hope you will."

"Then how do I get back if I'm already _here_?" Sarah protested.

"Excellent question," he evaded, having no idea how to answer her.

She bit her lip, pulling her knees up to her chest to try and feel _here_. It didn't work as well as she hoped. "You'll make it better?"

"Don't you have faith in me Sarah?"

"'Course," she snuggled closer to his side. "You made my hand better."

"Doesn't Harry deserve some credit?"

"He made my hand all _cold_. You made it better."

The Doctor laughed softly, "I suppose he did."

Silence fell between them, and as he felt her body relax at his side, the Doctor wondered if Sarah had fallen asleep. Feeling content and disinclined to move himself, he didn't bother to try and lay her on the bed.

His theory of her being asleep was shattered when she muttered, "Doctor?"

"Hm?"

"Can I make you better?"

He looked down at her, she was biting her lip and staring ahead. "What do you mean?"

"Sometimes.. when you're alone in the TARDIS.. I see you, and you look really sad. I thought that... maybe I could make you better, like you made my hand better."

"As you said Sarah, you should always tr-"

She grabbed onto the front of his waistcoat, looking so terrified that the Doctor wondered what he had done to scare her- then she pulled herself closer to his face, one of her knees going rather painfully into his thigh. He didn't focus on the pain very long though.

No, he was more focused on the rather clumsy kiss she had pressed to his lips.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Harry decided that seeing the Doctor upset as he was, was well, a little too strange for words. Sure, the man had had his moments in the past, but they never lasted long. Now that he thought on it, all his particular moments of out-of-sorts tended to happen when Sarah was hurt.

_At least she's not unconscious and chained to a rock this time_, Harry thought dully.

About to head home, he decided to take a detour and visit Sarah's room before he left the base. The Doctor was probably still there, and he could say goodnight to both of them. The door stood open when he reached it, and Harry felt himself tense, preparing for some unspeakable horror. Forcing himself to relax and chiding himself for jumping to such a conclusion (they were on the UNIT base after all) he pushed the door open all the way with his hand and stepped inside. He very nearly stepped right back out.

The first thing that went through his mind was _the Doctor is _kissing_ Sarah._

The next was, _Sarah isn't in a proper state of mind_.

Whatever happened between them when they were both fully mentally capable was of no business of his, no matter how curious he sometimes was, but if the Doctor was going to be be this sort of thing when Sarah wasn't likely to know any better...

Without really thinking, Harry strode up to the Doctor, grabbed the back of his waistcoat and yanked him away from Sarah. He was about to shout something about chivalry, or maybe dignity, he wasn't sure yet- when a rather unexpected voice got to the shouting first.

"Harry, what are you doing?"

It was Sarah Jane. She sounded as she normally did when she was speaking to him, which was rather irritated. Harry gawped at the young woman, realizing that somehow, she had come to be in full possession of her senses once again.

The Doctor rather unhelpfully cheered, "she's back!" Sounding a little too surprised for Harry's liking, making him wonder if the Doctor had even known before he started kissing her.

"For God's sake Harry, let him go," she snapped.

Mechanically he released the fabric in his grip, hearing a soft thump when he did so. He had lifted the Doctor off of the mattress.

"Er..."

"What do you want?" Sarah asked. Despite managing to still sound peeved, a blush had taken itself up across her cheeks.

"Well, I uh.. came to say goodnight."

"Goodnight then," her face was on the way to becoming a rather deep shade of scarlet.

"Yes Harry, goodnight," the Doctor smiled, turning on the mattress so that he would face him.

"Er, goodnight," he repeated, before hurriedly exiting the room and closing the door behind him.

Sarah kept her eyes trained on the door, too embarrassed to look the Doctor in the eye. She kept her hands in her lap, curled into tight fists. What was she supposed to say in this situation? _You could do, not say_, a cheeky little voice in her head spoke up. She wanted to tell it to shut up, though it had the most appealing plan she had come up with. Which meant it was the only plan she had come up with since she had regained sense. Her memories of the past day were still swirling around her mind, gaining new meaning just as they faded, like bits of a dream. A highly confusing dream with her apparently sleep-kissing her way into wakefulness and one of the most pleasant experiences of her life.

"Sarah?" The Doctor cut into her frantic thoughts.

"Yes?" She still didn't look at him.

His hand drifted up to touch her cheek, the feel of fingers on her skin seemed to bring her back into awareness with her body. Her eyes moved away from the door where they took note of her knee, where it brushed up against the Doctor's. As the silence continued Sarah began to wonder why he wasn't saying anything, before realizing what he was doing. She swatted his hand away irritably.

"You could ask before you do that," she snapped, finally looking at him.

He grinned and she found herself blushing all over again, "just making sure."

Instead of continued with her vein of anger she asked hesitantly, "are you sure?"

"Yes.. for whatever reason your mind is back in order. I knew I could sort it eventually," he beamed.

"You?" Her tone was very nearly one of complete surprise.

"Yes Sarah, what else could have?" His use of the word 'what' instead of 'who' told Sarah he knew exactly what she was thinking about.

Kissing the Doctor did not seem like a logical way to regain one's senses. In fact, the more she thought about, the more it seemed like a perfectly capable way of removing them. "Right," she responded instead, not wanting to point to the large elephant which had taken up residence in the room. "Yes well, thank you."

"You're very welcome," he kept beaming.

For once, Sarah wished he'd stop. "Good night then."

"Goodnight?" He suddenly looked perplexed.

"Yes Doctor, good night." More words tumbled out of Sarah's mouth before she could stop them, "unless there was something else you wanted?"

"I thought we'd go back to the TARDIS."

_Just like that?_ She wanted to shout. Sarah didn't know which would be worse, having to acknowledge that she kissed him, or the Doctor ignoring the whole thing. The state of mind in which it was initiated made the whole ordeal infinitely more perplexing.

Due to her silence, he continued, "unless.. you don't want to."

The Doctor sounded worried. Why would the Doctor sound worried? "Of course I want to go back to the TARDIS.. it's just.." The rather confused expression he was sending her way was not helping Sarah at all. "I.. I just.. _kissed_ you," she forced herself to say it.

"Yes, I believe you wanted to make me better."

If Sarah blushed anymore she was certain her cheeks were going to bruise.

"You were quite enthusiastic."

Bruised. Sarah could feel it now, whole face burning. Completely shamed, unable to look him in the eye ever again- _oh, what had she been thinking?_

"Perhaps if you knew what you were doing it could be better."

Her embarrassment immediately vanished. "Could be better? Knew what I..! I was hardly in the right state of mind, you can't go judging me-"

"Exactly."

"-when I-.. what?" It took her a moment to realize he had spoken.

"You weren't in your right state of mind." He repeated, his tone was softer, somehow more serious than she had heard it in a long time. "I don't want you to think I judge you for what you do when you're not yourself."

"Oh.."

"If there was anything you wanted to do, I'm sure you'd tell me when you could. Nothing has ever kept you quiet before." A small smile began to tug it's way back into shape at the corner's of his lips.

Ignoring his gentle teasing, Sarah found herself completely caught up in what the Doctor was implying. Was he giving her this opening on purpose? It would be just like him not to realize what he was offering. Than again, was he offering it because he was interested, or because he wanted the matter settled away and out of sight as quickly as possible? When she had kissed him, she didn't recall him being particularly _un_enthusiastic himself.

She opened her mouth, trying to find the right words, "Doctor?"

"Sarah?"

She bit her lip. Oh, of all the silly things to say-! "Could I.. kiss you goodnight?"

He looked surprised for half a second before grinning, "of course."

Sarah remembered being terrified when she had decided to kiss the Doctor just moments ago, and she found herself still a little frightened. It seemed silly to be scared, but it was the good kind of the scared. The 'what if I never get to do this again?' kind of scared that would make her treasure each and every kiss she was given, even if this was the last.

When she moved closer to him it took her just a moment to realize the Doctor had moved closer to her as well, and she paused when their faces were less than an inch for each other. They were frozen, both hesitating to close to tiny gap between them and Sarah suddenly realized _oh, he's worried too-_ before she had to stifle a laugh.

"We're being silly," she whispered, and she wasn't quite sure why.

"Are we?" The Doctor's voice was equally soft.

"Yes," Sarah insisted, still not moving any closer. "I've kissed you before this is just.." _Completely and utterly different because I know exactly why I'm doing this and you seem perfectly willing to.. participate_."This is just.."

"Suspenseful?" He tried to help.

"No. Well, I suppose it is but.. Doctor, do _you_ want to kiss me?" That was bothering her, he said she could kiss him, but a part of her had to wonder if he was actually, probably- definitely interested in the same. Or maybe it was a stall tactic because she was still too scared to do it herself.

"Yes, but I thought you wanted to kiss me first?"

_Definitely interested then_. "It doesn't really matter," she answered, feeling a great deal of relief coursing through her.

The Doctor looked incredibly confused, leaning in a tiny bit more, nose almost bumping into hers,"it doesn't?"

Sarah smiled, "not one bit," and finally kissed him. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Humans were an odd sort of people, the Doctor decided. Forever calling him peculiar, when they didn't even understand themselves. He supposed part of it had to do with the mad way they rushed about their lives, unable to stop and look at things properly. Most accused him of running through life at a gallop, but all things considered, he was traveling along quite sedately- what with centuries to make up for not doing much at all. That was part of why they rushed so much, and he had figured that bit out regenerations ago. They were around for such a short time, and they had come to realize that when they discovered just how vast the universe was.

He used to think of them as children. Forever children, right up until they died, incapable of having the lifespan that would carry them into adulthood, to properly understanding the worlds at large.

Thankfully he had gotten rid of that silly notion.

A year, a day, a decade- centuries, it all mattered on how you lived it.

Still, there was no philosophizing away the fact that most humans (ones in this time, anyway) did not tend to make it to a century. And those that did would never make it half-way to their next. They were a short lived, next to him.

Or, as his rather depressing thoughts had been circling towards, _she_was quite short lived next to him. One life. One body. One face. Unless she went for plastic surgery, which he rather hoped she wouldn't.

There he was, properly inserting 'she' into his thoughts!

She of course, being Sarah.

Sarah, who had gone and acted like a child, even to her own people. Sarah, who still managed to have dirt on her one face, and had decided to kiss him. Sarah, who's short life had somehow become something incredibly greater to his longer one- and he knew through that kiss and the possibility of more to come, that she had drawn herself closer to his hearts. Undoubtedly, he was closer to hers as well.

Humans, with their one heart- now that was something he was still yet to understand, how humans could live with just one heart, that seemed like madness to him.

How easily those hearts could break too, and that was what was worrying him. He could very easily break Sarah's heart, a flash, a moment for him for it to happen- but it could be her entire life he would break along with it. So why did he want to kiss her again? Why did he want to pull her close, not let her go- until one day he would have to. For him, their time would end someday. Either through her death or her leaving (which would almost be bearable, now wouldn't, because he could find her again, over and over, see her in that one spot, but _oh_- how would he stand having let her walk away?) things would end.

Endings. So much like a goodbye, and he didn't like those, not one bit. All of time and space before him and things still had the audacity to end! It was almost infuriating, but he understood the necessity of ends, in the great scheme of things. They were important to the way the universe ran, no matter how hard he tried to run from them.

But he was putting things out of order, here, wasn't he? He quite liked the order of a time traveler's life, it made such interesting shapes, compared to the line most people liked to walk on. Here he was, thinking about endings, when really, it was all about a beginning, wasn't it?

The beginning he was inching towards with Sarah. A beginning he was terrified of because it would end.

It was just one of those unfair laws of the universe, wasn't it? Alright, not unfair,_ per se_, just one of things silly pieces of abstract he wasn't allowed to fight against.

You couldn't fight against things starting though, either. However could anything happen if nothing ever started? Beginnings could be terrifying, but they could also be exhilarating, magnificent, and the start of many other things to which he could never experience unless that _one_thing came up first.

Then there was the experience that the beginnings brought about. The whole adventure between the start and finish. The Everything that he had so much fun moving about in, witnessing beginnings when he fancied it, jumping right over the endings and showing Sarah the good bits (and alright, sometimes the bad) of the Everything.

There was an Everything that they could have if he just let them Begin, but could he stand the End?

* * *

><p>"That's the look," she yawned, pulling a hand from under the duvet to cover her mouth.<p>

Sarah was curled up under the blankets of her borrowed bed, the Doctor laying next her on his side, head propped up with one of his hands.

"What look?" He asked.

"When I see you in the TARDIS, and you seem to so sad.. You had that look on your face."

"I did?"

"Yes," Sarah sighed.

"Well," the Doctor smiled. "I believe you had a remedy you wanted to try?"

"Mmhmm," she stayed tucked under the blanket, reaching out with her freed arm towards him.

Shifting so that he could lean over her, he said, "good morning Sarah," before brushing a kiss to her lips, nearly toppling on top of her when she wrapped her arms around him, unbalancing him the process.

She started to laugh when, in an effort not to crush her, he fell off the bed instead of on to her. Sarah propped herself up onto her elbows, peering down over the edge of her borrowed cot in the UNIT closet the Brig called a spare room, to look at where the Doctor was a crumpled heap on the floor.

She heard a muffled 'ow' from the floor and had to stifle a giggle.

He held a hand up to his nose as he slowly pulled himself back up.

"Here," Sarah reached out and delicately clasped his wrist in her fingers, pulling his hand away from his face. "Let me kiss it better."

* * *

><p>No, there was no fighting against beginnings. He would just have to do anything to hold onto everything, and dig his heels in when the end came.<p> 


End file.
